I'm In a Bad Mood: Rumours a Plenty but No Spending Money for Rafa!
Tuesday, 11 August 09, 05:43 AM · Comments (5)
"Uh oh, Rafa's coming. Put away your wallet"
Hear Ye, Hear Ye. Its Tuesday the 11th of August, and your logged onto The Kop End.
Afternoon all, please excuse the lack of 'Good' in my greeting. I am not in the best of moods today, but I will try my best to swallow my worries and report on what it is that has my caged rattled. Not only was yesterday a slow day for the club, but news has travelled that should have every supporter deeply concerned. According to Sky Sports, the club has wiped its face and broken even in the transfer market this summer, leaving Rafa having to speak to the owners to secure more funds. Now have I missed something or does 1 + 3 actually = 5? Something just does not add up here at all. The Glen Johnson deal only cost around the region of £11M, while the Aquilani deal was negotiated to be one initial payment of £4.25M with the next payment not due till January. If you also take into account that Madrid spent nigh on £35M for Arbeloa and Alonso, then surely we should have made £20M more than we have spent. Of course I'm not the club accountant, so I wouldn't for the life of me actually be able to tell you the strength of Rafa's wallet, but if I was to take an educated guess I would say that he has a fair bit to trade with and there is nothing to worry about.
This is what Rafa said:
| We are working hard with the players we have and the money we have. It is always difficult to compete in the EPL with clubs who have more money. We had some money, but I will not talk about figures, It is something I have to talk with the club about. We try to be ready just in case we can sign someone, but you never know. It depends on the prices. If we need something more, we will talk to the owners. |
So typical Rafa then, always avoids questions with a variation of his favourite question dodging phrase: "We are continuing to work with the club". I think Rafa is interested in buying another attacking player, but with the loss of Hyypia, and the injuries to our 3 main centre backs, he has been forced to re think his strategy. Looking at the quote, it seems to me that he will have to ask for more funds for one of three reasons. Firstly, he actually doesn't have much money in the piggy bank left, and will have to ask for more pocket money. Secondly, he just about had enough money for a player of quality, but due to defensive frailties he is having to look at buying back up as well. And thirdly, my favourite theory of them all. Rafa is looking to acquire the services of a truly great player, but in order to do this he just needs a little extra money to secure the deal. Either way, its obvious that Rafa does not want to be dragged into a bidding war with any other managers, especially those who are splashing the cash needlessly, no names *coughmrhughescough*. So Franky says relax, because it could be worse.. Steven Gerrard could quit to become a professional boxer while the rest of the players are sold to Arabian merchants and replaced with camels. - Still, I'd rather the camels than Sean Dundee, who's house is still burning I do believe.
Moving onto the gossip:
Sky Sports report that Rafa is keeping tabs on Japanese star, Keisuke Honda, who plays for Dutch team VVV Venlo. Now I have three queries about this rumour. How is his first name pronounced? Did the reporter writing this article sneeze when pushing the V button? And is he really the type of player Liverpool should be looking to sign? Admittedly I cant answer the first 2 questions but the third is a dead cert. No! This is most likely just a rumour, Rafa can surely set the bar a lot higher.
*Watches tumble weed roll past*... What? I told you, yesterday was a slow day. That was the only gossip there was regarding our club.
An interesting rumour to keep an eye on is that our neighbours are keen to sign Paris St Germain ace, and previous Liverpool target, Stephane Sessagnon. I've seen this player in action, he is a real prospect, and one who would adapt quickly to the pace of the Premier League. He is the type of player I would love to see at our club; strong, quick, and extremely skilful. What's more is the fact that he would only cost around £12M. Hopefully we can have a transfer window derby with Everton and beat them to the punch.
Ending the day on a high note, Mascherano is ready to commit his future to the club after Alonso left for Madrid. The Argentine captain fully understands that the club simply cannot afford to lose him. This is what Rafa had to say about this situation:
| I have spoken to him before but now he realises he is a very, very important player for us," said Benitez. "He is a key player, he knows he has to be an example and he is ready. It was difficult before for him but now he has seen Alonso go and so he knows he must stay. |
So some good news then. Had Masch's actually left, it would have been hands on head time for all Red fans... apart from the scummy ones on the other side of Manchester.
That'll do for today. Be sure to keep an eye on today's news, and get involved in the weeks 'Kop End Debate'
Till Tomorrow. Walk on, with hope in your heart.
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Posted by Neverwalkingalone
| Comments (5)
5 Comments · Add yours
regarding fees in and out, instalments etc, believe none of what you read. why would you think that we pay in instalments and madrid pay cash up front??
the americans are cowboys and should fuck off.
Keisuke is pronounced somewhat close to KAY-Skay, except the it should be less of a ay sound and more of an eh. There are no diphthongs in Japanese.
Hoe-n-dah Kay-skeh
I follow Japanese football and I can say he's a good player, a lot of potential, but I don't know if he is first team Liverpool material. I was surprised that we were linked to him to be frank. But, he could come in and do a job, especially if Lucas isn't working out while Aquilani is injured. He's also played in some of the back positions as a youth player in Japan.
For the right price he could be a good signing, used in the same way as El Zhar.
i was reading in the sports sections of newspapers the other day (not too reliable i know) and they attempted to tot up how much money we should still have. they reckon rafa got 37.5 million transfer kitty from the owners this year.plus all the player sales and stuff and they added this up to somehow we have made over 100 million and spent a little over 40 million. this kinda adds up when u look at it. but i have a horrible feeling that what money we are making is being pocketed by the owners. we need to sign more quality otherwise we will likely be going back to 4th place. the closer the end of this window gets the more worried i get. please please dont let aquilani be the last transfer otherwise this will likely be rafas last season
@longfong. i asked my japanese friend and he said ur wrong its pronounced "key-soo-kay" and then just honda as in the car company
@john. I am a Japanese speaker, to reassure you, and I didn't want to get too technical in the pronunciation. I just wanted to give people a way to sound close to the way a native speaker pronounces it. Keisuke is written けいすけ、phonetically broken down into syllables as, "ke - i - su - ke", the す（su) being pronounced "soo". However, as it is an unstressed syllable, it is only ever-so-slightly pronounced. It ends up soudning like "kehsssskeh" almost. But, pronouncing it with just the open vowels is difficult for English speakers, and tedious to explain, so I just went for something simple and close instead of exact.
There is a Japanese baseball player in American called Matsuzaka Daisuke. However, people just write his name "Dice-K" because that's roughly how it's pronounced.
Not to contradict your Japanese friend, but just to elaborate, because native speakers don't normally know how to teach people how to speak their language, especially pronunciation, but if you ask him to just say the name normally I'm sure you'll hear how it sounds like I said. I've been teaching both Japanese and English both ways for a while (I'm bilingual) so I can see your point about correcting me. Thought I'd just elaborate on it.
As for Honda, most English speakers pronounce that wrong. It is just like the car company, but most people don't pronounce that right anyhow, so I thought I'd give a little lessons there too.
It's an open O sound, like the French "faux" the o in foliage in English. not Hahnduh, but Ho-n-dah. The a sound in da is like ah as in father.
Hope that in elaborate enough for you, but I could use IPA if you want. Does that jive with your Japanese friend?
regarding fees in and out, instalments etc, believe none of what you read. why would you think that we pay in instalments and madrid pay cash up front??
the americans are cowboys and should fuck off.
Keisuke is pronounced somewhat close to KAY-Skay, except the it should be less of a ay sound and more of an eh. There are no diphthongs in Japanese.
Hoe-n-dah Kay-skeh
I follow Japanese football and I can say he's a good player, a lot of potential, but I don't know if he is first team Liverpool material. I was surprised that we were linked to him to be frank. But, he could come in and do a job, especially if Lucas isn't working out while Aquilani is injured. He's also played in some of the back positions as a youth player in Japan.
For the right price he could be a good signing, used in the same way as El Zhar.
i was reading in the sports sections of newspapers the other day (not too reliable i know) and they attempted to tot up how much money we should still have. they reckon rafa got 37.5 million transfer kitty from the owners this year.plus all the player sales and stuff and they added this up to somehow we have made over 100 million and spent a little over 40 million. this kinda adds up when u look at it. but i have a horrible feeling that what money we are making is being pocketed by the owners. we need to sign more quality otherwise we will likely be going back to 4th place. the closer the end of this window gets the more worried i get. please please dont let aquilani be the last transfer otherwise this will likely be rafas last season
@longfong. i asked my japanese friend and he said ur wrong its pronounced "key-soo-kay" and then just honda as in the car company
@john. I am a Japanese speaker, to reassure you, and I didn't want to get too technical in the pronunciation. I just wanted to give people a way to sound close to the way a native speaker pronounces it. Keisuke is written けいすけ、phonetically broken down into syllables as, "ke - i - su - ke", the す（su) being pronounced "soo". However, as it is an unstressed syllable, it is only ever-so-slightly pronounced. It ends up soudning like "kehsssskeh" almost. But, pronouncing it with just the open vowels is difficult for English speakers, and tedious to explain, so I just went for something simple and close instead of exact.
There is a Japanese baseball player in American called Matsuzaka Daisuke. However, people just write his name "Dice-K" because that's roughly how it's pronounced.
Not to contradict your Japanese friend, but just to elaborate, because native speakers don't normally know how to teach people how to speak their language, especially pronunciation, but if you ask him to just say the name normally I'm sure you'll hear how it sounds like I said. I've been teaching both Japanese and English both ways for a while (I'm bilingual) so I can see your point about correcting me. Thought I'd just elaborate on it.
As for Honda, most English speakers pronounce that wrong. It is just like the car company, but most people don't pronounce that right anyhow, so I thought I'd give a little lessons there too.
It's an open O sound, like the French "faux" the o in foliage in English. not Hahnduh, but Ho-n-dah. The a sound in da is like ah as in father.
Hope that in elaborate enough for you, but I could use IPA if you want. Does that jive with your Japanese friend?